The Ending Of Intuition Explained

Contains spoilers for Intuition

Crime thrillers thrive on mystery and misdirection, which often makes unpacking their climaxes a bit of task. Netflix's latest entry from this genre is no exception.

Intuition, or La corazonada as it's known in its native Argentina, is a tense crime drama written and directed by South American filmmaker Alejandro Montiel (Perdida, Hypersomnia). Within Montiel's oeuvre, Intuition serves as a prequel to 2018's Perdida, though the story can certainly be enjoyed as a standalone. This convoluted tale stars Luisana Lopilato, reprising her role from Perdida as homicide detective Manuela "Pipa" Pelari. She's joined by Montiel-verse newcomer, Joaquín Furriel, who plays Francisco Juanez, Pelari's sketchy partner.

The two detectives are called upon to investigate the brutal murder of a young woman in a case that sets the layered plot of Intuition in motion. They soon discover that their victim, Gloriana, was widely disliked within the community. The 19-year-old socialite had all the unpleasant trappings of a spoiled heiress, which didn't earn her many allies. Gloriana's unpopularity obviously complicates the investigation for Pelari and Juanez, as they quickly learn that plenty of people would have been happy to see her killed. While she investigates the murder of Gloriana, Pelari is also tasked with looking into her own partner, who has been implicated in the shooting of Galvan, a young man who killed Juanez's wife.

Is your head already throbbing? Go ahead and pop an aspirin, because Intuition is just getting started.

The real case doesn't even kick off until about 20 minutes into the movie, when Pelari goes to investigate the scene of Gloriana's murder. Juanez shows up late to the call. He's apparently been hospitalized for an untreated heart condition, though he's keeping this a secret from his partner. Why untreated? Because Juanez is an archetypal loner with a death wish, a lá Extraction's Tyler Rake. Turns out, Netflix has its preferences.

Conveniently, these surprise hospital stays ultimately provide Juanez with an alibi for Galvan's murder. What ensues from this point forward is an elaborate game of cat and mouse: Pelari and Juanez bounce from suspect to suspect in an attempt to solve Gloriana's murder, all while Pelari is also investigating Juanez for the murder of Galvan. Most of the investigative leaps Pelari and Juanez make in the course of the film are the result of their investigative intuition, a narrative device that's occasionally unsatisfying if entirely consistent with the explicit theme of the film.

Suspicion quickly moves from Gloriana's former boyfriend to her best friend Minerva, who can produce no alibi and rattles off a strained story inconsistent with the known facts of the case. Minerva's trail leads the detectives to Gloriana's neighbor Mauro, who allegedly used to climb out his window and spy on Gloriana and Minerva. The detectives decide that Mauro is the likely killer ... because reasons?

While all this madness continues, the DA puts more pressure on Pelari to find incriminating evidence on her partner. Instead, Pelari discovers Juanez's hidden heart condition, and — as a result — his alibi for the murder of Galvan.

So, Mauro killed Gloriana, and Juanez is innocent. Case closed, right? Ha.

Just after Juanez and Pelari finish, erm, consummating their partnership in celebration of the big win, Juanez gets a call from his doctor. He realizes that Pelari has been investigating him, which is kind of a bad look. Meanwhile, Mauro has broken out of the mental health ward where he was being held and is now stalking Minerva. She kills Mauro — presumably in self-defense, though we never get to see what exactly transpired between the two of them.

Juanez decides to reopen the Gloriana case because, you know, intuition. He interrogates Minerva, accuses her of murder, and confronts her with the inconsistencies in her story that she dropped way back in act 1. Minerva breaks.

We flashback to the night of Gloriana's murder. She and Minerva got into a huge fight because Gloriana was super drunk. If you'll remember, Gloriana was kind of unpleasant in life. She said some pretty untoward things to Minerva, and Minerva had the totally symmetrical response of killing her in her sleep. Mauro is still dead, by the way. Poor, wrongfully accused Mauro.

With about half an hour left in the movie at this point, we still have the matter of Galvan to resolve. To this end, we're introduced to Galvan's brother, Zorro, who's apparently the one bringing all the pressure to investigate Juanez. He's convinced that Juanez is responsible for his brother's shooting. Fed up with doing things the slow way, Zorro shows up at Juanez's house with a gun. Juanez tells Pelari to hide and listen — presumably, some kind of big reveal is imminent. The requisite shootout ensues. Juanez is shot, though he's wearing a vest. Pelari reveals herself and shoots Zorro before calling an ambulance to the scene.

Time passes. Pelari visits Juanez in the hospital, where she meets his mother-in-law — the mother of his deceased wife. Using her uncanny power of detective intuition (there it is again!), Pelari determines that this deus ex mother-in-law must be Galvan's actual killer. One final time, we flashback to the night of the crime.

The mother-in-law is, indeed, guilty. She killed Galvan, and Juanez helped her cover it up. While Pelari was getting the call that initiates the Gloriana case, Juanez was disposing of evidence, and that's why he was late to the crime scene in act 1.

If you're looking for a twisty-turny crime thriller to occupy a night, you could do worse than Intuition – though Netflix has plenty of options in this category, especially if you like your thrillers with a touch of sci-fi.